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St. Evagrios on "Thoughts that burden us"

GrigoriiGrigorii
edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
Being a sinner myself, I thought it might be helpful to others who are like me, (if they are here), to start a thread on how to "deal" with sin. As I read St. Evagrios on this, I will share some discoveries with you, and perhaps, if you dare, you can share what it means to you and how it works for you? I do not start this thread for polemical interrests, merely for the purpose of dealing with my own sins, in the hope that sharing with others might benefit us both. This post is the first one, how many will follow I do not know, God knows.

In our struggle to live as Christians, we often have certain sin-habits burdeining us. St. Evagrios was well-known in his days for his accuracy in discerning of spirits. he could identify which sins were causing most of the problems of an individual, and he could identify the evil spirit whom we were wrestling with. To St. Evagrius every sin-thought is inspired by a demon, and holy-thoughts are inspired by angels. The battle with sin is not just a battle against our flesh, but we are battling the demons who "specialize" in these sins. Sin is not just that, it is connected to the evil one who seeks to destroy our lives.

St. Evagrios came up with a "remedy" a cure for our sin-sick souls. It is the practical application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in such a way that we learn to recognize sin-patterns, and the demons behind it. We than learn how to fight them in the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. The first important stage in this battle is to achieve passionlessness (apatheia), which is the freedom of the soul from every enslavement of sin. It is not the freedom of temptation, but the control (freedom) not to give in to them.

The second stage in this battle is "contemplation of nature", so that we learn to read creation as God's writings and revelation as St. Anthony the Great did. This is also the stage where the deeper (spiritual) meanings of Holy Scripture are disclosed to us.

The third stage is described as "theology" which is the achieving of the fully deified state, where we have united with God. This is where we have become God in so far as God became man. God, in St. Evagrios almost always means the Trinity. Theology is therefore intimate acquaintance with the Trinity.

All these stages are not to be seen as strictly separated, however. It is possible that someone on the beginners-level (working towards stage 1) receives a grace of experience of oneness with the Trinity, just as it is possible (even necessary) that a theologian continues to "fight" temptations as he did working towards stage 1.

The Orthodox Way, in St. Evagrios is the following:
CHRISTIANITY is the teaching of our Savior Christ consisting of asctical practice, the [contemplation of] nature, and theology.
Praktikos 1

The sin-habits are recognized in the following pattern:
THERE are eight generic [tempting-] thoughts (logismoi), that contain within themselves every [tempting-]thought:
first is that of gluttony;

and with it, sexual immorality;

third, love of money;

fourth, sadness;

fifth, anger;

sixth acedia;

seventh, vainglory;

eighth, pride.

Whether these thoughts are able to disturb the soul or not is not up to us; but whether they linger or not, and whether they arouse passions or not; that is up to us.
Praktikos 6

The passions are inflicted upon us without our will. They come to us, they are even unleashed upon us by evil spirits (demons). This we cannot help, and we are not responsible for having a bad thought. We are only responsible for that which is within our power to change. To let these thoughts linger in our hearts, and to cherish them is a choice we make, and for this we are responsible. For we could also decide not to let them linger, but to fight them off (asceticism). Passions are aroused by letting these thoughts linger, passions are "healed" and "kept off" by not feeding them on these thoughts, by not letting them linger. To realize these things is step 1 in winning the spiritual warfare!

IC XC

Grigorii

Comments

  • nardinnardin
    wow grigorii thats cool gr8 stuff keep up the good work sorry but who is St. Evagrios never herd of him b4

    GB ALL
    +FROG+
    GOD IS GREAT!!
  • Unknown

    fourth, sadness;

    Sadness is a tempting/sinful thought? I realise that one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is indeed joy, but I didn't think that the converse of all these fruits are necessarily sinful. I understand that anger being a passion is in itself sinful, but I always consdered sadness to be natural in contrast...

    I liked your post, but I feel that it didn't say enough. It introduced a general remedy, it explained the purpose and ultimate goal of the remedy, and identified the dangers. Where is the plan of attack?

    Peace.
  • GrigoriiGrigorii
    Dearest to Christ FROG,

    St. Evagrios is a saint in our Oriental Orthodox Tradition, he counts as condemned in the Chalcedonian tradition. The Chalcedonians have (mistakenly) assumed that St. Evagrios was condemned for "origenism" at the second council of Constantinopel (a council of which we had no part, and has no bearing on us whatsoever) and this condemnation is confirmed (not passed) at what the Chalcedonians call the sixth ecumenical council.

    St. Palladius writes this about his former teacher in his historical book about Egyptian Monasticism:

    Chapter LXXXVI

    EVAGRIUS, a famous deacon.

    I cannot pass over Evagrius, a distinguished deacon who lived like an apostle, but I feel bound to write something, to the glory of our good Saviour and the edification of anyone who might read it. So I give a full account of how he came to the monastic life and the worthy way in which he lived it. He died in the desert aged fifty-four, thus, in the words of Scripture, 'being made perfect in a short time he fulfilled a long time' (Wisdom 4.13). He was indeed a soul pleasing to God.

    He was born at Ibora, in Pontus [near the Black Sea, c.346], the son of a priest, appointed as a lector by Saint Basil the bishop of Caesarea. After the death of the holy bishop Basil, he was ordained deacon byBasil's brother, Gregory bishop of Nyssa, who had taken note of his abilities. Gregory was a most wise man, worthy of being compared to the apostles, with a very serene temperament, and quite brilliant in expounding doctrine. He took Evagrius with him to the Great Synod of Constantinople (382 AD), and relinquished him to the blessed bishop Nectarius, who appreciated his skill in the art of summing up arguments in all kinds of subjects. [omnium differendi artis peritissimus]. He gained a reputation as a young man in that great city for refuting all kinds of heresies in public debates.

    It came to pass, however, that this man, honoured by the whole city for his upright life, became lustfully obsessed by a portrait of a woman, as he told us himself in later life when he had been freed from such obsessions. And the woman also, belonging to one of the leading families, became obsessed by him. But Evagrius feared God and feared his conscience also. He kept before his eyes the public disgrace that could come from sin, and how much pleasure the heretics would take from the sins of other people. He humbly begged God to take away from him the prospects afforded him by this woman, fed by lust as he was and held captive by mad desire. But however much he wished to escape he had no power against the insidious pleasures which held him in chains.

    But a short time after his prayer, and before his desires could be carried into effect, he had an angelic vision in which he saw a military commander seize him and bring him before the judgment seat, carry out the sentence of imprisonment by putting an iron collar around his neck and fixing iron chains to his hands, while those who had followed him previously could say nothing in his defence. Pricked by conscience he felt that he deserved these punishments, and supposed that the woman's husband had brought him to this judgment. His mind in a turmoil, he came to this conclusion since he had been involved in similar trials debating the crimes of other people. His fear and mental anguish was intense.

    And then the angel of the initial vision became transformed in his eyes into a kind and brotherly friend who was astonished and saddened by the shame of his being chained up with forty other convicted criminals.

    "Why are you being detained so ignominiously among criminals, my reverend deacon?" he asked:

    "Truly, I don't know," he replied. "But I suspect that N….. who is a high-up officer has organised my arrest in a fit of zeal beyond all reason, and bribed the judge to impose the greatest possible penalty."

    "Take the advice of a friend," said the angel, still in friendly guise. "It would be best for you not to stay in this city any longer."

    "If you can see me freed from this calamity back in Constantinople," Evagrius replied, "I swear I would accept that punishment, knowing that I deserve a much greater."

    "If that is the case I will bring the holy gospels and when you have sworn an oath on them that you will leave this city and take thought for your own salvation I will free you from your imprisonment."

    "Please do that, and I will gladly swear the oath. Only get me out from under this dark cloud."

    The gospels were brought, the oath was demanded, and Evagrius swore:

    "I will not stay in this city longer than one day in which I can get my things on to the ship."

    The moment he had sworn the oath he awoke from the dream which had come upon him that night.

    "Even though it is only in a dream that I have sworn this oath," he said as he got out of bed, "I have nevertheless sworn."

    And he conveyed himself and everything he possessed by ship to Jerusalem, where he was accepted by the blessed Melania of Rome. But being of a lusty youthful age, his heart was hardened by the devil again, like Pharaoh of old. He was full of doubt, of two contrary minds, though as yet he had not talked with anyone about it. The result was that he thought of changing back to secular dress again. In all this disturbance of mind vainglory rapidly led to laziness, but the God who saves us from falling led him once more into a crisis, in that he first of felt feverish, then became seriously ill, so that he was incapacitated for the space of six months. He was unable to summon up any strength at all, and the doctors could not understand what was the matter with him and could offer no cure.

    "I don't like this disease of yours," said the blessed Melania, "going on day after day. Tell me what is going on in your mind. Bodily illness is not the real thing, is it."

    So he confessed what had happened to him in Constantinople.

    "Promise me as God is your witness," she said, "that you will embrace the monastic life, and sinner though I am I will pray to God for you that you may be given food for your journey and find a purpose in life."

    He agreed, she prayed, and after a few days he got much better. She herself then clothed him in the monastic habit, and he went off to a far country, that is, to Mount Nitria in Egypt. He lived there for two years and went into solitude in the third.

    After fourteen years in the region known as the Cells he was eating only a pound of bread a day and a pint of oil very three months - and he was a man who had been brought up in the lap of luxury. He composed a hundred essays (orationes), marking them down each year as the only price he could afford in exchange for what he ate. He was a most elegant and speedy writer. A month into his fifteenth year, he was found worthy of being granted the gifts of knowledge, wisdom and discernment of spirits. He wrote three books for monks called Antihrretica, that is, Refutations, outlining the means of fighting against the demons.

    He told us that once when tormented by a demon of fornication he stood all night in a well, even though it was winter, in order to discipline his body with coldness. On another occasion, as he told us, when he was tormented by a spirit of blasphemy, he stayed outside for forty days, so that his body became like that of the wild beasts and broke out in scabs. And three demons dressed like clerics appeared to him. One of them accused him of being an Arian, the second of being a Eunomian, the third an Apollinarian, but he overcame them with a few words inspired by the spirit of wisdom. One day the key of the church was mislaid, but he called on the name of Christ, made the sign of the cross on the crossbar, pushed it with his hand and it opened. It would be difficult to tell of all the beatings he had from demons and all the other torments they devised for him. He foretold to one of his disciples what would happen to him in eighteen years time, describing everything exactly as it was to happen (omnia ei praedicens in specie). He also said:

    "Since the time I became a solitary I have not touched lettuce or the smallest particle of green vegetables, or anything fresh, fruit, grapes, lauacrum (?), meat, wine or anything cooked. All I have had is wild herbs and water." But in the sixteenth year, without cooking since beginning this kind of life, weakness of body and stomach persuaded him of the need for his flesh to take in some cooked food. For two years he ate some bread, though never any cooked vegetables, except some barley-groats and lentils. By these means this blessed man wore down his body but brought life to his soul through the Holy Spirit. He communicated in church at Epiphanytide.

    This wholehearted athlete of Christ also told us when on his death bed that it was only for the last three years that he had not been bothered by the desires of the flesh. So even towards the end of a life rooted in virtue, after immense labours, unwavering purpose and sober unceasing prayer the malicious demon, the enemy of everything good, could still attack this immortal soul. If that is the case what must the lazy ones suffer from that wicked demon through their own negligence?

    Somebody once brought him the news that his father was dead, and all he said to the messenger was: 'Don't blaspheme. My father lives for ever." He was, of course, talking about God.

    Such was the way in which this amazing Evagrius lived his exacting and perfect life.

    IC XC,

    Grigorii
  • nardinnardin
    wow :o thas long thnc very much grigorii :) GBU


    GB ALL+FROG+
    GOD IS GREAT!!
  • GrigoriiGrigorii
    Dearest to Christ Iqbal,

    Thank you. ;)

    Sadness is a tempting/sinful thought? I realise that one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is indeed joy, but I didn't think that the converse of all these fruits are necessarily sinful. I understand that anger being a passion is in itself sinful, but I always consdered sadness to be natural in contrast...

    The sadness St. Evagrios speaks of is not "sadness" as we commonly understand it. This will become clear if more posts of St. Evagrios' words will be posted.

    I liked your post, but I feel that it didn't say enough. It introduced a general remedy, it explained the purpose and ultimate goal of the remedy, and identified the dangers. Where is the plan of attack?

    Its not supposed to say anymore however,.. The problem of sin and salvation thru faith (which is Orthodoxy as much as Orthopraxy - as much believing as doing) is not solved in one post. Perhaps it is not even properly touched upon yet,..

    All in good time.

    IC XC,

    Grigorii
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